Vulture

Celebrating St. Patrick's Day with something appropriately green. Adrian Toomes uses a specialized flying suit to soar through the skies as The Vulture. Ah yes, a "specialized" flying suit. Not to be confused with one of those generalized, off-the-rack flying suits. Only the finest in bespoke flying suits will do for Adrian Toomes! Then it's off to his haberdesher to purchase a hat that lets you travel through time, and finally the cordwainer for some antigravity shoes! You know, as old as Vulture is, comic creators could do a lot worse than write him so he sounds like Mr. Burns. Like when he's trying to prove he's hip to his fellow villains: "What's that you say? You're called The Beetle? Like that group of shaggy, unkempt minstrels on the old Sullivan show? Yes, I remember their off-key caterwauling! What was Ed thinking?" Or when making sure his henchmen grab all the cash during a heist: "Oh don't pooh-pooh a nickel, my fine hooligan! A nickel will buy you a steak and kidney pie, a cup of coffee, a slice of cheesecake and a newsreel. With enough change left over to ride the trolley from Battery Park to the Polo Grounds!" Come to think of it, is Vulutre really that old? Yes, this figure looks like a realistic sculpt of Mr. Burns, with the evil smile, pointed nose, and the liver spots on his bald head, but he was created in the early '60s by a couple of young guys, so it's entirely possible his withered, decrepit looks were meant to show us that he was in his 40s. Like Ultimate Vulture, this figure reuses a body that's super skinny, but still has enough articulaton to let him flap his arms. His arms are new molds, with slightly larger shoulder balls - his costume is drawn like that, sometimes - and the arms have notches where the wings plug in. He's got his fingers held out like claws, and although he doesn't have the big hump that conceals the equipment that powers his flight harness, they did give him a new piece around the neck to make his feathery white ruff. The reused body means the vertical lines on his costume are just paint, not sculpted, but they have done some lighter patches on his chest and upper arms so he's not just a uniform green all over. Kind of like what they did with Thing, but good instead of bad. Pink circles around his eyes make him look wild, too. But to save money, they only did the lines where the highlights are, something that looks good enough if there's no direct light on him, but becomes just weird when you really look at him. There are no liver spots on his hands, because of what else is included in the package. It's an alternate head, wearing a pointed helmet. You know, as seen in that "me and the boys" Sinister Six meme? Technically that piece turns this into a new character: the helmet was part of the costume only when it was worn by Blackie Drago, Adrian's cellmate who broke out of prison to become the second Vulture. The eyebrows should thus be black, not gray, but it still counts (even if the face is clearly still an old man). And here, the lines on the costume are molded in. His wings are done in two pieces, so he can still flex his elbows: one of the upper arm, one for the forearm. They aren't marked to say which side they go on, and the pegs aren't different sizes or anything, so just remember that the light side of the feathers is meant to face outward, while the darker side is meant to face in. The wings are designed so that the forearm pieces slide past the upper arm pieces on the outside, so he's able to straighten his arms. Where was this cleverness when Captain America was being stuck on the ground? Vulture comes with the head of Demogoblin. No, he didn't attack and decapitate a fellow villain, that's the Build-A-Figure for this series. This release continues the trend of putting a classic villain in every Spider-Man Legends series, but more importantly, he finishes off the original lineup of the original Sinister Six! -- 03/17/20

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